Emma recommends... Wife - Charlotte Mendelson | SIGNED COPIES

Emma recommends... Sharply funny but also deeply sad, thought-provoking, and surprisingly gripping. Zoe is such an empathetically drawn character and I genuinely could not put this book in the final part, as the full extent of how she has been manipulated unfolded - willing her on as my heart broke for her. Can't wait to welcome Charlotte to the shop and hear her talk about this fabulous book!

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When Zoe moves in with Penny, their relationship looks perfect; after all, everyone wants a wife, don’t they? But this is the story of how love can become a disaster.

Zoe Stamper, junior researcher in Ancient Greek Tragedy, meets fellow academic Dr Penny Cartwright at a faculty flute recital. Dr Cartwright seems impossibly glamorous to Zoe, who is, after all, several rungs down the academic pecking order – and a nervous ingénue as far as Penny’s sophisticated circle is concerned. But Penny leaves Zoe a cryptic note, and a passionate affair ensues. Once Penny confesses all to her live-in lover, Justine, her and Zoe’s happiness seems assured. But there is something else Penny needs as badly in her life as Zoe’s adoration, and thus the beginning of their affair might also have signalled its end.

Wife is an acutely observed and coruscating novel about the joys of passionate love and motherhood, and those left behind in its wake when passion curdles. It is heartbreaking and funny, profound and gripping, as it takes the reader from the end of a relationship to its beginning, and back again.